A Serial Killer’s Last Words

A Serial Killer’s Last Words

On July 2, 1931 at 6:00pm, German serial killer Peter Kürten was walked to the guillotine alongside a priest and a psychiatrist. After a 10-day trial, Kürten was convicted of nine counts of murder and seven of attempted murder.

“The Vampire of Dusseldorf,” as he was known, would stab, strangle, and rape women and girls as young as five. He would confess to spontaneously ejaculating whenever he would see the sight of blood and would often visit the graves of his victims.

From 1913 to 1929, Kürten killed nine people, including one man, using either a knife, a pair of scissors, a hammer, or his hands. He was arrested in 1930 and confessed to all of his crimes, even claiming to drink the blood of some of his victims.

The jury spent less than two hours to arrive at a verdict. He was sentenced to death.

Before his head was placed on the guillotine, Kürten turned to the psychiatrist and asked, “Tell me… after my head his chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck?

“That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.”

When asked whether he had any last words, Kürten smiled and replied, “No.”